Monsters lose to Abbotsford, 4-1

Players on the Monsters roster do everything they can to be called up to the NHL Colorado Avalanche.

Good for a player, bad for Lake Erie when that promotion comes.

In recent weeks, the Avalanche have called up four of the top seven Monster scorers, including left wing David van der Gulik on Friday morning. Earlier this week, Monsters leading scorer Michael Sgarbossa was sent up to Lake Erie's parent club.

The scoring drain caught up to the Monsters on Friday night in a 4-1 loss to the Abbotsford Heat in Quicken Loans Arena one night after the Monsters bested the Heat by an identical score.

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The Abbotsford victory Friday before 13,258 at the Q put the Heat back in first, one point ahead of the Monsters (53-52), in the AHL North. The Monsters and Heat meet in back-to-back games in Abbotsford next Saturday and Sunday.

"That hasn't even crossed my mind," Chynoweth said. "I don't think that had anything to do with the way we came out. We weren't sharp. The power play wasn't good. It wasn't just that we didn't shoot pucks. We never got into position to shoot pucks.

"They turned the tide on us. Everything we did well last night, we didn't do as well and they did better tonight. It was a tale of two different teams each night, but I wouldn't use call-ups as an excuse one bit. Give credit where credit is due. Abbotsford played a better game than us."

The Heat scored one goal in the first period, one in the second and two in the third, including an empty-netter with five seconds left.

Ben Street got things going for the Heat with a shot from atop the right faceoff circle at 4 minutes, 37 seconds of the first period, nine seconds into a 5-on-3 power play. Tyler Ruegsegger scored on a rebound in the second period and Paul Byron made it 3-0 on a shot off goalie Calvin Pickard's right pad 2:06 into the final period.

The story of the game, though, was the Heat's smothering penalty-killing unit, and the Monsters' inability to solve Abbotsford goalie Danny Taylor.

The Heat, the top-rated penalty-killing unit in the league with 122 of 158 stops before the game, was a perfect 5-for-5 Friday. The Heat have also allowed an AHL fewest 94 goals.

Lake Erie's only goal was scored by Brad Malone, who also was up with the Avalanche briefly. He skated from behind the net with the puck and beat Taylor on the stick side 7:38 into the final period.

The Monsters, 24-17-2-2, are off until Tuesday when they host the Hershey Bears. The way the shuttle between Cleveland and Denver works, van der Gulik or one of the other players could be back with the Monsters by Tuesday. Chynoweth doesn't want that.

"That's the league," Chynoweth said. "We're here to develop players.

"I was happy as can be when we got the call-up of Vandy. He's done everything we've asked of him. It's a great opportunity for him. I hope he doesn't come back and sticks up there. That will be an opportunity for somebody else here. We'll get by with that."